The Blarney Bear

Today’s post isn’t one I was planning on needing to write, but here we are! Over the last few months, as I’ve completed the process of stopping my rituals, I’ve found my depression worsening and generally feeling lost and hopeless. I wanted to share my experience in the hope that someone out there might have experienced something similar and can offer advice. A little warning/disclaimer, I don’t write this with the intention of putting people off seeking treatment for OCD and attempting to stop their rituals. That is absolutely not what I’d say to anyone but in my rational moments, I can see how much my life has improved since starting my treatment. . At times, I feel braver than I ever have before and I’m finding the courage to try things that seemed impossible before – they’re small things that others wouldn’t give a second thought to, but they’re mountains to me. My intention is to get some advice for myself and also to let others know that if you’re emerging from the cocoo

Title: Am I Normal Yet? Author: Holly Bourne Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd Publication Date: 1st August 2015 Source: Purchased / Kindle Synopsis: All Evie wants is to be normal. And now that she's almost off her meds and at a new college where no one knows her as the-girl-who-went-nuts, there's only one thing left to tick off her list... But relationships can mess with anyone's head - something Evie's new friends Amber and Lottie know only too well. The trouble is, if Evie won't tell them her secrets, how can they stop her making a huge mistake? Review: Evie, the main character of this novel, is a teenage girl who is recovering from OCD. She was previously hospitalized and sectioned but when we meet her, she is gradually lowering her medication, about to go on her first date and trying to be “normal” at her new college where only her best friend knows about her past. I went into this book with pre-co

Although we’re still in the middle of the school holidays, I’d like to talk about the dread that comes along with the return to school. Most people feel reluctant to go back to school after the holidays but for some, the reluctance can be so overwhelming and so strong that they’ll do anything they can not to have to go to school. This is something I experienced during my schooldays (and still do to a certain extent) – at the time it was called “school phobia” but now it’s referred to as “school refusal”. Teacher = Authority? I first remember starting to feel anxious about going to school when I was about 7 or 8 years old. As far as I can remember, I never had a problem going to school before then and I’m still not completely sure what triggered it at that point. The teacher I had that year was the strictest of the teachers that I’d had so far and because of that, I found her a little scary. My theory is that this is when I first started to see teachers as authority figures